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Home , Karen Armstrong, Mary Midgley

Further Reading and References

Introduction

Friedrich Schleiermacher discusses his religious sensibility in On Religion: Speeches to Its Cultured Despisers. Paul Tillich presents his ontology in Volume I, Part II of his Systematic . Accessible sermons are also available in collections. Nietzsche’s announcement of the death of comes in The Gay Science, Book 3, 125, translated by Walter Kaufman and published by Vintage Books (1974). True Religion, by Graham Ward, published by Blackwell (2003), examines why the emergence of the scientific worldview is not the end of religion but the remaking of it. Karen Armstrong discusses the birth of American and figures like A. C. Dixon in The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in , and , pub- lished by Harper Collins (2000), see page 178–9. T. H. Huxley’s essay ‘Agnosticism’ can be found in the misleadingly entitled : a Reader, edited by S. T. Joshi, published by Prometheus Books (2000), see page 33 for the quote. God’s Funeral, by A. N. Wilson, published by Abacus (1999), sets Victorian agnosticism in a wider historical context. Scholarly studies on Victorian agnosticism include: The Unbelievers: English Agnostic Thought, by A. O. J. Cockshutt (Collins: 1964) – a good survey of players. The Origins of Agnosticism: Victorian Unbelief and the Limits of Knowledge, by Bernard Lightman (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987) – good on agnosticism’s relation- ship to the philosophy of Kant and why Victorian agnosticism as a movement died. Søren Kierekegaard’s Fear and Trembling is a Penguin Classic, translated by Alastair Hannay (1985): see page 62 for the quote. All the quotes from Plato are taken from Plato Complete Works, edited by John M. Cooper, published by Hackett Publishing Company (1997). The quote from the Phaedrus is at 278d.

1. Socrates’ Quest: The Beginning of Wisdom

Greek Religion, by Walter Burkert, translated by John Raffan, published by Blackwell (1985), is the standard text on the eponymous subject. The Religion of Socrates, by Mark L. McPherran, published by Penn State University Press (1996), is the most thorough examination of the historical Socrates’ attitude and feelings about religion and belief that I have seen. The quote from the Laws is at 948c. 190 Further Reading and References

Xenophon’s Socratic ‘proof’ for the existence of is in his Memoirs of Socrates 1.4. The account of Socrates’ response to the oracle begins at Apology 20e. Plutarch’s account of Socrates’ peripatetic method is in Whether a Man Should Engage in Politics when He Is Old, 26, 796d. The discussion about gods and goodness (or piety) begins around Euthyphro 9c. Diotima’s contribution in the Symposium begins at 201d. Alcibiades appears at 212d. The interview with Bertrand Russell is reprinted in Russell on Religion: Selections from the Writings of Bertrand Russell, published by Routledge (1999), Chapter 4, ‘What Is an Agnostic?’. The Road to Delphi: the Life and Afterlife of Oracles, by Michael Wood, published by Picador (2003), is a fascinating and evocative study of the role of ancient oracles.

2. Cosmologists and Darwinists: the Limits of Science

Newton: the Making of Genius, by Patricia Fara is published by Picador (2003). The : a Very Short Introduction, by Samir Okasha, published by Oxford University Press (2002), does what it says on the cover. Thomas Kuhn’s revolutionary ideas are in his 1963 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (University of Chicago Press). Karl Popper’s revolutionary ideas are in his 1959 book The Logic of Scientific Discovery (Hutchinson). A very useful summary of issues in the philosophy of science comes from a discussion Brian Magee had with Hilary Putnam, reproduced in Talking Philosophy, published by Oxford University Press (1978), Chapter 12, from which the Putnam quotes are taken. Kuhn vs Popper: the Struggle for the Soul of Science, by Steve Fuller is published by Icon (2003). The quote of Werner Heisenberg is from his Physics and Philosophy, published by Penguin Books (1989), on page 167. Our Final Century? Will the Human Race Survive the 21st Century?, by Martin Rees is pub- lished by Arrow (2004). ’s essay ‘The Sacred and the Scientist’ is in Ben Rogers’s Is Nothing Sacred?, published by Routledge (2004), with the quote on page 137. The Story of God, by Robert Winston, is published by Bantam Press (2005).

3. Visions of Reality: Science and Wonder

All that remains of the writings of the pre-Socratic philosophers are in Early Greek Philosophy, published by Penguin Classics (2001), with introductory material by Jonathan Barnes. Empedocles’ ‘Twofold Tale’ is on pages 120–2. Socrates tells of his change from natural science to philosophy beginning at Phaedo 96a. Happiness: Lessons from a New Science, by Richard Layard, is published by Allen Lane (2005). An example of the distinction between zob and bios is deployed by Aristotle in his Politics, see 1252b30. Susan Greenfield made her point about asking the right questions of neuroscience at an event entitled ‘Religion and Neuroscience’ at the Royal Institution in May 2005. Further Reading and References 191

Michael Atiyah deployed his metaphor of the Faustian pact in a lecture given in 2000 entitled ‘Mathematics in the Twentieth Century’. It has been reproduced in Mathematical Association of America Monthly, August–September 2001. Brian Ridley’s On Science is published by Routledge (2001), see pages 46 and 141 for the quotes. TechGnosis, by Erik Davis, published by Harmony Books (1998), has more on the importing of the religious imagination into science. The Essential Midgley, edited by David Midgley, is published by Routledge (2005) and provides an excellent survey of her work. See ‘Salvation and the Academics’, pages 228–38, for her reflections on DNA. Dominique Janicaud’s On the Human Condition is published by Routledge (2002), see pages 54–8. ‘Life’, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is in Selected Poetry, edited by Richard Holmes, pub- lished by Penguin Books (1996), page 8. Moby Dick, by Herman Melville, is a Penguin Classic (2003). The quotes are in Chapter 42, ‘The Whiteness of the Whale’, page 206. Longinus, ‘On Sublimity’, is in Classical Literary Criticism, published by Oxford University Press (1989), page 143. made his comments to the press when Life in the Undergrowth was launched. Thomas Traherne’s thoughts on flies and celestial strangers are in the excellent anthol- ogy Thomas Traherne Poetry and Prose, selected and introduced by Denise Inge, pub- lished by SPCK (2002), pages 111–14. Baron von Hügel’s comments are quoted in a review of his The Reality of God, and Religion and Agnosticism, in the Times Literary Supplement of Thursday, 18 June 1931. Roger Scruton discusses piety in An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Philosophy, published by Penguin Books (1996), see page 117. Einstein’s relevant writings and thoughts are all gathered at www.einsteinandreligion.com, including these quotes. Piers Benn’s essay ‘The Idea of the Sacred’ appears in Ben Rogers’s Is Nothing Sacred? (see above), quote on page 126. The Devout Sceptics interviews by Bel Mooney are collected in a Hodder and Stoughton book with the same title (2003): see page 57 for Paul Davies’s quote.

4. Bad Faith: Religion as Certainty

Atheism: a Very Short Introduction, by Julian Baggini, is published by Oxford University Press (2003): see page 106 for the quote. In What’s It All About? Philosophy and the , published by Granta (2004), he offers an atheist’s take on the ‘big questions’. Denys Turner’s lecture ‘How to Be an Atheist’ is in his collected talks Faith Seeking, pub- lished by SCM Press (2002). Philosophy: the Latest Answers to the Oldest Questions, by Nicholas Fearn, is published by Atlantic Books (2005). Herbert McCabe is quoted in The Thought of Thomas Aquinas, by Brian Davies, pub- lished by Clarendon Paperbacks (1993), page 111. Karen Armstrong discusses her ideas on logos and myth in The Battle for God (see above). A concise version is in A Short History of Myth, published by Canongate (2005): see page 122 for quote. Serious Concerns, by Wendy Cope, is published by Faber and Faber (1992). Disciplining the Divine: the Failure of the Social Model of the Trinity, by Paul Fletcher, is pub- lished by Ashgate (forthcoming). 192 Further Reading and References

No God But God: the Origins, and Future of Islam, by Reza Alsan, is published William Heinemann (2005), see page 263 for quote.

5. Christian Agnosticism: Learned Ignorance

The story about Thomas Aquinas is in Brian Davies’s The Thought of Thomas Aquinas (see above). De docta ignorantia, by Nicholas of Cusa, is available online. This quote comes in Chapter 1, ‘How it is that knowing is not-knowing’. The quote from Meister Eckhart is from his sermon XCIX, available in collected works. The Unknown God: Agnostic Essays, by Anthony Kenny, is published by Continuum (2004), with his reflections on Arthur Hugh Clough’s poem in Chapter 1, ‘The Ineffable Godhead’: see page 20 for the quote. Chapter 8 compares Clough and Arnold. T. H. Huxley’s reflections were in a review of Agnosticism published in the Times Literary Supplement of Friday, 27 February 1903.

6. Following Socrates: a Way of Life

The discussion of Plato’s Academy in Chapter 4 of Plato: an Introduction, by Paul Friedländer, published by Princeton University Press (1973) and translated by Hans Meyerhoff is fairly old now but is hard to beat. The Seneca quote is from Moral Epistles 6, 6. The Plato quote from the Seventh Letter is at 341c. Pierre Hadot’s idea of philosophy as a way of life is developed in several books. An acces- sible text is What Is Ancient Philosophy?, published by Harvard University Press (2002). The quote I use can be found on page 62 of this book. Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault, edited with an introduction by Arnold I. Davidson and translated by Michael Chase, published by Blackwell (1995), develops the idea further. The Art of Living: Socratic Reflections from Plato to Foucault, by Alexander Nehamas, pub- lished by University of California Press (1998), is also fascinating. Plato’s myth in the Gorgias begins at 523a. Aristotle’s characterisation of the wise man is in his Nicomachean 1125a12. The quote from Montaigne is in his essay ‘On educating children’ (I: 26). The Complete Essays, translated by M. A. Screech, is published by Penguin Classics. The quote is on page 180. D. H. Lawrence’s essay ‘The Good Man’ is discussed by Christopher Hamilton in his Living Philosophy: Reflections on Life, Meaning and Morality, published by Edinburgh University Press (2001), on page 122. The original quote is in Lawrence, Phoenix I, edited by D. McDonald (Heinemann, 1961), page 752. A summary of Michel Foucault’s idea of thinking differently is in the introduction to the second volume of his History of Sexuality, The Use of Pleasure. The seminar he gave on 6 January 1982, transcribed in The Hermeneutics of the Subject: Lectures at the Collège de France 1981–1982, published by Palgrave Macmillan (2005), focusses on the rela- tionship between Christian and ancient philosophical moral practice. Some of the Further Reading and References 193

interviews in Foucault: Live Collected Interviews, 1961–1984, edited by Sylvère Lotringer (Semiotext [e], 1996), are also illuminating. Essays and Aphorisms, by , with an introduction by R. J. Hollingdale, published by Penguin Classics (1970), is a good introduction to his thought and way of life. Schopenhauer’s equivocation about whether philosophy can change a life is discussed in Schopenhauer, by Julian Young, published by Routledge (2005), on pages 158–64. Bryan Magee writes about knowing Karl Popper in his Confessions of a Philosopher: a Journey through , published by Phoenix (1997). Popper on Socrates is discussed on page 561. Unended Quest, by Karl Popper, is published by Routledge (1992), with the quote about happiness on page 145. On Religion, by John Caputo, is published by Routledge (2001).

7. How to Be an Agnostic: an aphoristic A–Z

The Owl of Minerva: a Memoir, by Mary Midgley, is published by Routledge (2005). The quote is on page x. The Daniel J. Boorstin quote is from an essay ‘The Amateur Spirit’, in Living Philosophies, edited by C. Fadiman, published by Doubleday (1990). The Francis Bacon quote is from The Advancement of Learning, published in 1605. A summary of Karl Popper on Darwinism is in Unended Quest, Chapter 37 (see above). Melvyn Bragg’s quote is in Devout Sceptics (see above). Oscar Wilde’s essay can be found in his collected works. John Elliot Gardner made this comment in an interview on the BBC’s Front Row with Mark Lawson. Roger Hull makes his comments on the American Sublime in the catalogue to the exhi- bition. Leslie Stephen’s An Agnostic’s Apology is in Atheism: a Reader (see above). Augustine ponders the question ‘What do I love when I love my God?’ in Book X.6 of his Confessions. The quote is from the translation by R. S. Pine-Coffin, published by Penguin Books (1961). Freud, by Jonathan Leer, is published by Routledge (2005). Jeannette Winterson’s website is www.jeannettewinterson.com. Will in the World, by Stephen Greenblatt, is published by Pimlico (2004). Thomas Carlyle’s quote on silence is in his essay ‘Sir Walter Scott’, in Critical and Miscellaneous Essays. The Spiritual Dimension: Religion, Philosophy and Human Value, by John Cottingham, is published by Cambridge University Press (2005). index

agnosticism, 7, 33–7, 69, 77, 96–7, 99, 122–6, Benedict, Saint, 151 135–7, 155, 165, 176, 188 Benn, Piers, 80 as a way of life, 9–10, 11, 12, 140–63, 165–88 Bentham, Jeremy, 64–5 as indifference, 9 Bible, 3, 67, 105–7, 112, 127–8 as religious, 11, 27, 121, 133, 160–3 Big Bang, 66–8, 91 in ancient Greece, 18–19 Boorstin, Daniel J., 165 in science, see science, agnostic attitude Boyle, Robert, 44 towards Bragg, Melvyn, 169 Socrates and, see Socrates, agnostic Brenton, Howard, 139 wisdom of Burke, Edmund, 174 alchemy, 40–5, 46 Alcibiades, 33 Camus, Albert, 5 Alexander the Great, 24 Caputo, John, 161–2 Alpha Course, 87 Carlyle, Thomas, 184 Anaxagoras, 61–2 Chaerephon, 15–16 ancient Greek religion, 17 Chaucer, Geoffrey, 149 Anselm, 93–5, 133 Chesterton, G. K., 115 Anytus, 16 Christianity, 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 99–108, 120–1, 133, , 114, 115, 117–21, 131, 137, 140, 153–5, 157, 161–2, 168, 178, 184–6 162 church, 99–101, 104, 130–1, 161–2, 166, 184 Appius, 23 Church of England, 1, 3, 6, 86 Aquinas, Thomas, 55, 90, 91–2, 111–12, 113–15, Cicero, 141 162 Clough, Arthur Hugh, 123–6 Aristophanes, 17, 20 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 54, 70, 71 Aristotle, 61, 65, 111, 145, 148, 152 consciousness, 76, 168 Armstrong, Karen, 102–3, 104 Cope, Wendy, 105 Aslan, Reza, 109 Copernicus, 5, 101 atheism, 3, 5, 28, 29, 30, 34, 36, 86, 87–9, cosmology, 45–7, 49–54, 116 93–8, 99, 103, 113–14, 120, 122, 134 Cottingham, John, 185 in ancient Greece, 20, 28, 63 creationism, 55, 108 Atiyah, Michael, 66 Croesus, 23 Attenborough, David, 72–3 cynicism, 152 Augustine of Hippo, 162, 173–4, 179, 181–2 Darwinism, 54–6, 57, 63, 75, 82, 92, 108, 148, Bacon, Francis, 44, 83, 166 166–9 Baggini, Julian, 87, 88 Davies, Paul, 82 Beckham, David, 180 Dawkins, Richard, 6, 54–5, 67, 87 Benedict XVI, 108 death, 36, 128–31, 149–50, 163 196 Index deism, 135–7 wagering on, 133–5 Delphic oracle, 13–16, 18, 23–6, 44, 188 Gould, Glenn, 40 Democritus, 57–9, 61 gravity, 42, 45, 51, 76, 80, 82 Derrida, Jacques, 113, 162 Greenblatt, Stephen, 183 Descartes, René, 158 Greenfield, Susan, 66 Dionysius, 123 Gregory of Nyssa, 117–18 Diotima, 31–3 Dixon, A. C., 6 Hadot, Pierre, 149, 154 DNA, 67–8 Halley, Edmond, 40 Dostoevsky, Fyodor, 127, 132 happiness, 64–6, 83, 159, 185 Durham cathedral, 1, 2 Hawking, Stephen, 47 Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 165 Eastern religions, 7 Heisenberg, Werner, 50 Eckhart, Meister, 120–1 Hesiod, 17 Einstein, Alfred, 45, 47, 51, 77, 169 Hilary, Saint, 111 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 144 Hilbert, David, 46–7 Empedocles, 57, 59–60 history, philosophy of, 169–71 Epicureanism, 25, 153 Holy Grail, 44 Euripides, 17 Homer, 17, 35, 182 evangelicalism, 104–5, 182–3 homosexuality, 3, 107, 157–8 evil, problem of, 11, 126–33 Hull, Roger, 174–5 existence, 76, 80, 97, 162 humanism, 3, 5, 11, 131–2 Hume, David, 39, 48, 60, 92, 122, 142, 188 faith, 1, 10, 42–3, 187–8 Huxley, T. H., 7, 136 Fara, Patricia, 40 Fearn, Nicholas, 89 intelligent design, 55–6, 97 fideism, 122 Islam, 7, 109 Fletcher, Paul, 105–7 flies, 72–5, 80 James, Henry, 1 Foucault, Michel, 157–8, 184 Janicaud, Dominique, 69 Frenk, Carlos, 46 Jenkins, David, 166 Freud, Sigmund, 176–8, 184–7 Jesus, 9, 86, 104–5, 107, 139–40 friendship, 22, 116, 143 Judaism, 7, 110 Fuller, Steve, 49 fundamentalism, 6, 89, 99, 108–10 Kant, Immanuel, 49, 50, 54, 59, 142, 171–2 Karnak Temple, 95–6 Gagarin, Yuri, 69 Keats, John, 39, 170–1 Gardner, John Elliot, 171 Kenny, Anthony, 111, 123–5, 176 gift, 97–8 Keynes, John Maynard, 39–40 God Kierkegaard, Søren, 10, 178 and goodness, 27–8, 92–3, 128, 160 Krasnik, Martin, 87 death of, 3, 69 Kuhn, Thomas, 47–8, 49 doctrine of the Trinity and, 43, 104 history of, 3 Lawrence, D. H., 157 intervention of, 42, 43 Layard, Richard, 64 judgement of, 35 Lear, Jonathan, 178, 185 non–existence of, see atheism Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, 42 ‘proofs’ of, 11, 29, 55, 88–9, 91–5 Longinus, 72 unknowability of, 3, 83, 89–95, 97–8, 99, 100–1, 108, 111–26, 133, 134, 136–7, 140, Magee, Bryan, 159 161–3, 169, 181–2 Maxwell’s Equations, 51 Index 197

McCabe, Herbert, 90 Quakerism, 114–15 Melville, Herman, 70 quantum mechanics, 48, 51, 59, 91–2 memes, 42, 168 Meredith, George, 85 Rees, Martin, 53 Midgley, Mary, 68, 165 , 108, 149 Miller, Jonathan, 88 Ridley, Brian, 66–7 Milton, John, 43 Roth, Philip, 87–8 Montaigne, Michel de, 155–6, 158 Ruskin, John, 176 moon, 81, 155 Russell, Bertrand, 33–6, 39, 97 Moses, 118 music, 96, 116, 130–1 Schama, Simon, 170 Musil, Robert, 160 Schleiermacher, Friedrich, 1, 3, 99 mystery, 49–53, 63, 75–6, 122–6, 188 Schopenhauer, Arthur, 40, 158–9 myth, 102–3 science agnostic attitude towards, 11, 49–53, neuroscience, 63–6 70–83 Newton, Sir Isaac, 39–44, 45, 46, 48, 51, and ethics, 78–83 102, 169 as naturalism, 63 Nicholas of Cusa, 118–20 as , 56, 63, 102 Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 3, 5, 37, 139, 185 philosophy of, 47–9, 63 Noyes, Alfred, 39 worldview of, 5, 7, 11, 66–9, 96, 101–3, 140, 147–8, 169, 187 Oedipus, 13 Scott, Ridley, 81 Scruton, Roger, 76–7 Paley, William, 91 Seneca, 13, 145, 153 Parmenides, 57, 59 Shakespeare, William, 5, 183 Pascal, Blaise, 133–5 silence, 114–17, 131, 132–3, 140, 151, 163, 184 Paul, Saint, 139–40, 153 Socrates, 11–12, 18, 21, 22, 24, 37, 40, 68, 76, Peter, Saint, 139–40 92–3, 151, 153, 163, 170, 173, 185 piety, 76–7, 80 agnostic wisdom of, 15–18, 19, 24–6, 29, Plato, 18–19, 21, 25, 28, 31, 37, 60, 126, 141–53, 31–7, 38, 69, 80, 83, 125–6, 141–5, 158, 158, 163, 180, 181, 182 159, 160–1, 187 Apology, 19 as lover, 21–2, 29, 31–3, 36, 137, 161, 162, 173 Euthyphro, 27–9, 92 as religious, 26–30, 37–8, 160–1, 162 Gorgias, 150 daemon of, 30–3 Laws, 18–19 death of, 37–8, 62, 150–1 Lysis, 21, 22, 143 disillusionment with science, 60–3 Phaedo, 60–3, 150, 151, 180–1 philosophical creed, 19–20, 181 Phaedrus, 11–12, 26, 145 philosophical life of, 13–38, 154, 155 Republic, 149, 150, 182 unpopularity of, 16–17, 20 Symposium, 31–3, 143, 144, 172–4, 180 Sophists, 2 , 173 Sophocles, 17 Plutarch, 22 soul, 35 Popper, Karl, 48–9, 143, 159, 166–9 Stephen, Leslie, 175–6 Potter, Denis, 131 Stoicism, 153 prayer, 124–6 sublime, 71–2, 174 Protagoras, 18 Swinburne, Richard, 112–13 Proust, Marcel, 183–4 Putnam, Hilary, 47, 49 technology, 5, 11, 69, 83 Pyrrhonism, 152–3, 155 Thomas Aquinas, 55, 90, 91–2, 111–12, 113–15, 162 Pythagoras, 57 Tillich, Paul, 1, 3, 99 198 Index time, 51–3, 76, 80 Williams, Rowan, 101, 104 Toynbee, Polly, 88 Winston, Robert, 54–5 Traherne, Thomas, 73–5 Winterson, Jeannette, 182–3 Turner, Denys, 89, 91, 92, 97 Wittgenstein, Ludwig Josef Johann, 6, 24, 57, 115–16, 137, 142 van Gogh, Vincent, 40 wonder, 43–4, 70–83 Voltaire, 131–2 Wordsworth, William, 22 von Hügel, Baron Friedrich, 75–6 Xenophon, 19 Wagner, Richard, 6 Wilde, Oscar, 169 Zeno, 188 Williams, Bernard, 132 Zohar, 188